Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images(BEIRUT) -- At least one person thinks a political solution can be reached to end the two-year conflict in Syria. That's Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Lebanon's The Daily Star reported on Tuesday that al-Assad, who has been blamed for most of the violence in his war-torn nation, is optimistic that a settlement is possible despite fighting that continues throughout Syria.

Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan told a local paper that he spoke with al-Assad over the weekend and that the president stressed that dialogue with opposition leaders was the only way to solve the crisis that has cost more than 70,000 lives since March 2011.

Arslan said that the Syrian leader told him he was satisfied with "the course of events on the ground and also at the political level."

Al-Assad also believes that his military is in control of most of Syria, a claim impossible to verify given the lack of access by international reporters.